


for reasons we don't understand

by dimplesandcurls



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Pre-Series, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, ben is still dead, here's 5k+ words of klaus being happy and loved, i feel so soft writing this, klaus and ben friendship, the hargreeves siblings being caring towards one another
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 13:12:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18053135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dimplesandcurls/pseuds/dimplesandcurls
Summary: Ben's punch wasn't their first physical contact after his death.(this is just an excuse for me to write about klaus being able to have physical contacts with ben even as a ghost)





	for reasons we don't understand

**Author's Note:**

> hello! i just want to let you guys know that this fic is mostly about klaus and ben's friendship

Most of the time, Klaus sees Ben. The keyword being _most._ Out of all the dead people that his powers could have materialized, it was Ben that was always the one appearing. Why? He had no idea, but that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t grateful for it.

Having the ability to see and interact with the dead was something Klaus hadn’t wished to be brought to himself, but he guessed that it has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Being able to interact with his dead sibling is probably one of its advantages, even though their interaction was only limited to speaking. Or so he thought.

“Hey, Klaus.” A familiar voice called out. Klaus knew very well whose voice it was, because it was the only voice that he both missed and loved hearing. He didn’t need to look at who was calling out for him because he can already feel the owner of the voice’s presence.

“Ben!” Klaus said as he sat up from his bed, sounding too excited for someone who had been sick for a couple of days already. “I missed you! What do you wanna do today?” He said whilst looking up to the owner of the voice. Ben stood from a distance beside his bed, wearing the same black hoodie and matching jeans that he wore before his death, as well as after his death.

“It’s only been a few hours since we last saw each other, how do you suddenly miss me already?” Ben asked with a small laugh, walking over to the other side of the bed and sat down beside Klaus. He won’t let Klaus hear it, but he kind of also missed Klaus even after a short period of time of not seeing him.

Before Klaus was able to respond, a knock was heard from the other side of the bedroom door. “Klaus?” Another voice could be heard by the thirteen year old’s inside the room. “It’s me, Allison. Vanya’s with me. We’re coming in.”

The door revealed Vanya holding the door knob as she made way for Allison to enter. Allison held a tray with a mountain of cookies and a glass of milk as she made her way towards Klaus’ bed.

“Vanya and I made you something to eat. Well, technically, Mom made it, but we still set it up and brought it to you.” Allison said as she put down the tray whilst Vanya stood beside her with a smile.

“Thanks, you guys.” Klaus said with a smile bright enough to rival the sun, making Ben unconsciously put up a smile of his own.

“Of course, anytime. Sorry Luther and Diego weren’t able to visit you today. Dad sent them out in a mission easy enough to be done by only the two of them.” Allison explained.

“It’s okay. Thank you for this, really.” Klaus said as he looked at the meal that was prepared for him by two of his siblings. He felt his heart swell because of the sudden yet kind gesture.

Vanya smiled at him, “You’re welcome. I hope you get well soon, Klaus.”

“Thanks, Vanya. Oh, by the way, do you want some cookies?” Klaus offered.

For a second, Vanya looked torn. “I want some! But I can’t. Mom specifically said that these cookies are the ‘get well soon’ cookies. Only you can eat them.” That statement made Klaus smiled brighter, if that was even possible.

“As much as we’d love to stay and chat, we gotta get going. Unfortunately, not everyone of us is sick enough like you to be able to skip on training. I still have training to do in a few minutes, and Vanya has violin practices. We’ll be right back.” Allison said as she wave Klaus goodbye and left the room with Vanya on tow.

As soon as the door closed, Klaus grabbed one of the cookies and took a huge bite. Chocolate chip cookies, baked by his mom specially for him, accompanied by a tall glass of milk that Allison and Vanya had set up just for him. It’s times like this when he thoroughly appreciated his siblings.

“Do you want some, Ben?” Klaus invited with a joking smile on his face, “Oh wait, you can’t eat this because you’re not sick like me.” He teased, making Ben cross his arms and stick out his tongue. Klaus let out a laugh at the sight of Ben.

“I’ll steal a cookie or two if that’s the last thing I’d do.” Ben said with a silent chuckle. Both him and Klaus knew that his existence here on earth was limited to speaking to Klaus and Klaus alone, nothing more, nothing less. It’s out of his capabilities to be able to have any kinds of physical contact with any object, including a cookie.

“So what do you want to do today? Do you want to play with me?” Klaus eventually asked as he took another bite from his cookie.

Ben raised his eyebrow at his brother sitting beside him. “You’re still sick, so we’re not going to play today. We can watch a movie or anything in the tele if you want.”

“Okay. Since you don’t have any taste for good shows, I’ll be the one to pick choose what show we’re watching today.” Klaus teased as he turned his back away from Ben to grab the remote on top of his night stand. Once he grabbed it and turned again to face his best friend, he caught Ben’s hand a few inches away from his mountain of cookies.

“No, they’re mine!” Klaus yelled and squinted his eyes at Ben. His overreaction emitted an airy laugh from Ben, making Klaus smile a bit. “After you’re done playing your role as a thief, we can start looking for good shows on the tele.” He said while Ben tried to collect himself.

As Klaus mindlessly switched from channel to channel, he can’t help but to think of how lively Ben is acting today, or it’s just him thinking of that. It’s been a couple of weeks since Ben died, and Klaus knew that Ben was still trying to wrap the idea of death around his head. For the first week of Ben’s death, Klaus had watched him sit or stand in silent, staring at nothing as if there wasn’t any presence that could sense him. It had been a rough week for Klaus, seeing his brother silently struggle while refusing to respond to any of Klaus’ attempts of initiating a conversation, but after that, things started to go smoothly between the both of them. Ben started to enter in a conversation with Klaus, until it progressed into multiple conversations. As weeks went by, they started doing things simple things together, such as watch a show or listen to music together.

Klaus found happiness within the simple gestures that his siblings do to him. With Ben just being beside him, and Allison and Vanya performing a kind and lovely act by making sure he was doing well, his day was already made. He can’t remember the last time he felt as happy as today, despite of being sick.

“Ben, I want to say thank you,” Klaus stopped browsing the channels to put down the remote and face Ben. 

His moment was ruined at the sight of Ben attempting to steal one of the cookies from the pile. “Hey, I said don’t touch those!” Without thinking, Klaus slapped Ben’s hand inches away from the nearest cookie. Out of instinct, Ben jerked his hand away but not without letting out an ‘ouch’.

“That hurt.” Ben commented as he rubbed his hand that’s been slapped.

“You deserved that, really.” Klaus said. He was about to grab the remote to change the channel again until a wave of realization just hit him.

“Holy shit!” Klaus yelled as he reached out to hug Ben.

He didn’t know how he was able to touch Ben, much less _hug_ him. He didn’t know, and he didn’t care, all he knew was that he’s going to take advantage of this situation by hugging him tight and tighter.

“Holy shit,” Ben whispered, surprised laced in his tone, and reciprocated Klaus’ hug by hugging him tighter, like his life depended on it. It made Klaus want to laugh and at the same time cry right here and now. He hasn’t hugged Ben in so long it almost ached him to do it again.

After a few minutes of their hugging, the two of them were separated to break the hug as Klaus’ arms went through Ben, like Ben was back to being a ghost. As their physical contact was just quick, Klaus was still grateful for being able to share a hug with his best friend.

“How did you do that?” Klaus asked with a grin.

Ben shrugged his shoulders, “I didn’t do anything! I think it was you. How did _you_ do that?”

“I don’t know either.” Klaus said as he felt his heart pounding because of their current situation. He had absolutely no idea what just happened and how it had happened, but all he knew at that moment was that it was their first physical interaction together after so long, and that it won’t be their last. 


End file.
